Potato Warning

[Mad Dawg Wiccan]

For all my life, potatoes have been one of my favorite veggies. Baked, boiled, fried, I loved it all and they were a staple in my diet. About 15-20 years ago, there was a push by the healthy diet crowd to proclaim potatoes as the "perfect food", so long as they weren't fried or loaded down with fatty toppings. I was delighted, as the only thing I want on my taters is (if non-fried) a little margarine and seasoned salt. Also, they're cheap.
About 10 years ago, a physical showed that my triglyceride levels were way out of control (but my cholesterol levels were just slightly elevated) and I was very borderline (one point) diabetic. In talking with my doctor about it, I told him that my diet included a lot of potatoes, which I thought was being healthy. To my utter astonishment, he told me that potatoes have a higher Glycemic Index (a measure of how the food impacts the body) than pure sugar.
Just think of that - eating a six ounce baked potato with nothing else on it is harder on your pancreas and the rest of your body than eating six ounces of pure refined sugar.
I still eat potatoes, but I have cut WAY back on them and my triglycerides have dropped accordingly.


Just a warning for those who eat a lot of potatoes as part of a "healthy" diet.

[chiver78]

awesome....on a night where dinner was a pork chop and colcannon.

seriously though, thanks for sharing this FYI. potatoes aren't generally a regular entry on my menus, I've just really had a craving for colcannon lately.

[Mad Dawg Wiccan]

LOL, there are few things I hate more than cabbage, and mixing them with potatoes isn't going to make it any better!

PS - Is colcannon a common dish in New England? Most folks out here heve never even heard of it. I wouldn't have if I had not been a member of a Scottish Living History group.

[chiver78]

haha, love it. colcannon isn't a common dish in New England, unless you're off-the-boat Irish...which I'm not. I spent a fair amount of time working in Ireland when I was a lacto-ovo vegetarian right after college. colcannon was pretty much a daily menu item for me, since it was safe, and I'll make it every now and again.

[chiver78]

it is, but what I saw in Ireland is that Irish/UK dishes overlap a lot. I'm not really surprised mdw had colcannon in a Scottish menu.

[Mad Dawg Wiccan]

Feb 20, 2011 21:13:46 GMT -5 @chef241 said:

I thought colcannon was an Irish dish.

Early Scotts were just Irish who could sail.

[servant_of_dog]

This message has been deleted.

[thyme4change]

I never considered potatoes a vegetable. I always thought they were starch. Same with corn.

So, I looked it up and I'll be! They are vegetables.

Well - I still will count them as a starch and serve them with another vegetable. I did know they had super-high sugar content. They are one of the things that my FIL can't really eat because of the diabetes. He eats them, but then his blood sugars are all over the place. So, he tries to avoid them on a regular basis. Who knew that potatoes were "special occasion" food.

[kadee]

And nearly every meal I cook has potatoes! My triglycerides are fine! My DH is diabetic and they don't raise his sugar that much, it depends on what I have with it!

So once again, all of our bodies are different & process foods differently....and some of that has to do with our activity levels too!

[The J]

The method of preparing the potatos changes the GI number. Baked are one of the worst, whereas boiled potatos are considered a medium GI food, just on the border of low.

[Mad Dawg Wiccan]

Feb 22, 2011 9:10:36 GMT -5 The J said:

The method of preparing the potatos changes the GI number. Baked are one of the worst, whereas boiled potatos are considered a medium GI food, just on the border of low.

That's good to know, thanks.

[The J]

No prob. You can look up glycemic index charts online -- you can see the different numbers on there.

[kadee]

Feb 22, 2011 13:14:49 GMT -5 @patstab said:

I like raw peeled potatoes with salt. I can happily crunch my way through several. But I also like raw cabbage and turnips too.

ME TOO!!! Just don't try to take my salt shaker away!!!

[Tiny]

How much potatos per day or week each and every day or week is bad for you? Am I consuming too much if it takes me 2 to 3 weeks to work my way thru a 5 pound bag of red potatos? I will sometimes make 5 servings of Colcannon (it's a "new to me" dish that I've been making for a couple of years - love it with Swiss Chard or Kale instead of the cabbage or if you can find a savory cabbage versus the pale non-green grocery store cabbage) and I'll have a week of Colcannon lunches or dinners (and then little or no potatos for a week or two)... Am I "overdoing it"?

Colcannon doesn't have to be vegan or vegetarian - most recipes call for bacon and bacon fat and even milk and butter... I skip the bacon and butter but do put in some milk.

[Deleted]

I love potatoes! I serve them for dinner about 2 times a week. I just wish french fries and mashed potatoes and gravy were considered health foods.

[Mad Dawg Wiccan]

Feb 25, 2011 12:55:55 GMT -5 @familycfo said:

I love potatoes! I serve them for dinner about 2 times a week. I just wish french fries and mashed potatoes and gravy were considered health foods.

If they were, they would taste awful!

[Deleted]

LOL. True and karma for you.

[kadee]

This is a little old but.....

today.msnbc.msn.com/id/40424707/ns/...ealth?GT1=43001

and check out his numbers at the end of his 60 days!

And btw, my brother had a major problem with his triglycerides...he was passing out at the wheel of his vehicle. He cut out all FRIED foods and lowered his to less than the ideal #s!

[pig]

Mad Dog if you really like potatoes Nicola and Rosamunda ones have more reasonable GI numbers. If you're normally healthy it shouldn't hurt you to eat high GI foods. Glucose (sugar) is the reference point for most GI and is 100. Most potatoes clock in around 85. There are other scales of course.